Yes, it is shocking to see young girls dropping a four-letter word, but they are doing it to grab the attention of the people that ignore the important issues that the video addresses, time and time again. The true purpose of the video was to draw attention to issues such as pay inequality, rape, and sexual assault. The F-bomb is just a word! People find it offensive that these little girls are saying a curse word and they are willing to talk about the F-bomb on TV, but they ignore offensive issues like pay inequality, which affects an entire population.
To quote the video, “instead of washing these girls mouths out with soup, maybe society should clean up ITS act." Fox News calls the use of children to draw attention with the F-word, “child abuse.” This accusation is absurd. These children are actresses hired to play a role. They are not the first children that have cursed on TV and they will most likely not be the last.
If this is child abuse, half of the child actors and actresses that are used in TV shows and movies have been abused. What about movies where the children are involved in rape scenes or TV shows where children are exposed to material such as sex and drugs? This is not child abuse, it's acting. It’s getting real issues out on the table and not hiding the fact that rape, sexual assault, and pay inequality exist.
Entertainment Tonight brought the parents of one girl in the video onto their show. They began to ask the parents why they allowed their child to be involved in such a video. The father stated that they wanted to get these issues out in the open and that they would not be there discussing their stance on television if their daughter did not do what she did and use the f-bomb.
The mother’s response was much more shocking. She wanted her daughter to be aware of the dangers of sexual assault and, when the reporter said that the girls were much too young to be discussing issues like sexual assault, the mother began to cry. She had been touched inappropriately at the age of four and believed very strongly that sexual assault can affect anyone of any gender at any age.
Without these drastic measures being taken by FCKH8.com and their posting of the video “Little Girls Drop “F-Bombs for Feminism,” these issues would not have been recently discussed on shows like Entertainment Tonight and on networks such as Fox.
Feminism and the role society plays in assisting with unequal pay and the continuation of rape are issues that have been discussed for decades. Yet, little progress has been made in these areas. Drastic measures need to be taken in order to bring attention to these pressing issues and, without these young girls making a statement using a controversial mechanism that would cause people to watch and talk about the video, these issues would not have received the same amount of discussion and recognition that they have in recent week.
